The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) Q2 2024 Earnings Conference Call May 1, 2024 9:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Aimee DeLuca - Senior Vice President of Investor Relations
Jim Hagedorn - Chairman, President, & Chief Executive Officer
Matt Garth - Chief Financial & Administrative Officer
Nate Baxter - Chief Operating Officer
Chris Hagedorn - Group President, Hawthorne
Joshua Miles - Director Global Procurement at Hawthorne Gardening
Conference Call Participants
Jon Andersen - William Blair
Andrew Carter - Stifel
Joe Altobello - Raymond James
Peter Grom - UBS
William Reuter - Bank of America
Eric Boohard - Cleveland research
Operator
Good morning. Welcome to Scotts Miracle-Gro’s Second Quarter 2024 Earnings Webcast. I Aimee DeLuca, Head of Investor Relations. With me this morning our Chairman, President and CEO, Jim Hagedorn; and Chief Financial and Administrative Officer, Matt Garth. Jim will provide an overall business update, followed by Matt with a review of our financial results.
During our review, we will make forward-looking statements and discuss non-GAAP financial measures. Please be aware that our actual result could differ materially from what we share today. Please refer to our Form 10 -K filed with the SEC for details of the full range of risk factors that could impact our results. Following the webcast, Chief Operating Officer Nate Baxter and Hawthorne Division President Chris Hagedorn will join Jim and Matt for an audio-only Q&A session.
To listen to the Q&A, simply remain on this webcast. If you wish to participate, please join via the audio link shared in our press release. As always, today's session will be recorded. An archived version will be published on our website at investor.scots.com.
For further discussion after the call, you are invited to email or call me directly. With that, let's get started with Jim's business update.
Jim Hagedorn
Good morning, everyone. I'll start with my high-altitude assessment. The state of the company is good. I can't believe we're already halfway through the fiscal year. Everything we've done to get to a better place is happening, just like we projected it would when we laid out our fiscal ‘24 guidance. We told you we would achieve high single-digit growth in the consumer business and $575 million in adjusted EBITDA this year. And we'd do so while generating $1 billion in free cash flow over two years by the close of fiscal ‘24, improving gross margin by at least 250 basis points, and finding a long-term solution for Hawthorne. We've made progress on all these fronts. In fact, through the first six months, we've exceeded plan targets on key financial metrics that support our ability to deliver on our guidance. Free cash flow is a fabulous story.